5 things we learned at SXSW 2013

By Brandon Griggs and Doug Gross, CNN

Updated 1222 GMT (2022 HKT) March 13, 2013

Photos: Scenes from SXSW33 photos

Scenes from SXSW – Singer Ruben Albarran of Cafe Tacuba performs at the NPR show at the 2013 South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, March 13. The festival runs through March 17.

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Photos: Scenes from SXSW – A musician performs on the street near the festival on March 13.

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Scenes from SXSW – Fans attend the iHeartRadio showcase on Tuesday, March 12.

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Scenes from SXSW – The Canadian band Tegan and Sara performs on March 12.

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Scenes from SXSW – People crowd the streets outside the iHeartRadio showcase on March 12.

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Scenes from SXSW – Macklemore performs on March 12.

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Scenes from SXSW – Fans watch Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on March 12.

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Scenes from SXSW – Screens light up the bar at the VEVO TV Launch on March 12.

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Scenes from SXSW – Talib Kweli performs on Monday, March 11.

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Scenes from SXSW – Actor Tony Danza arrives at the screening of "Don Jon" at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on March 11.

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Scenes from SXSW – Director Joseph Gordon-Levitt introduces his film "Don Jon" at the Paramount Theatre on March 11.

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Scenes from SXSW – Actress Selena Gomez, left, director Harmony Korine and actress Ashley Benson gather in the green room to discuss their film "Spring Breakers" on Tuesday, March 10.

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Scenes from SXSW – "Spring Breakers" premieres during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Festival at Austin's Paramount Theatre on March 10.

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Scenes from SXSW – Gomez arrives at the "Spring Breakers" premiere on March 10.

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Scenes from SXSW – Tardar Sauce, better known by her viral Internet meme name "Grumpy Cat," has been a hit at SXSW. Read more.

Scenes from SXSW – SXSW attendees play computer games on March 10 at the Austin Convention Center.

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Scenes from SXSW – A man advertises free tacos and beer during SXSW on March 10.

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Scenes from SXSW – SXSW attendees get a ride through the streets of Austin on March 10.

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Scenes from SXSW – Country singer Willie Nelson attends the March 10 premiere of "When Angels Sing" at SXSW.

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Scenes from SXSW – People attend a Samsung Galaxy event featuring "Arrested Development" creator Mitch Hurwitz and actors Will Arnett and Jeffrey Tambor on March 10.

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Scenes from SXSW – Band of Horses performs during the Samsung Galaxy Sound Stage at SXSW on Saturday, March 9.

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Scenes from SXSW – Black Thought and The Roots perform on March 9 during the Samsung Galaxy Sound Stage event.

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Scenes from SXSW – An attendee uses her mobile phone to snap a picture of The Roots' show on March 9.

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Scenes from SXSW – From left, director Joe Swanberg, actress Olivia Wilde and actor Jake Johnson attend the world premiere of "Drinking Buddies" on March 9 at SXSW.

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Scenes from SXSW – Chris Anderson speaks with Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors, during the Elon Musk Keynote speech on March 9.

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Scenes from SXSW – A capacity crowd fills the Austin Convention Center for the Elon Musk Keynote on March 9.

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Scenes from SXSW – Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk, from left, Juliet Gorman of Etsy, RelayRides founder Shelby Clark and Tom O'Reilly speak at the "David Over Goliath: Power of the Sharing Economy" panel on March 9.

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Scenes from SXSW – Attendees listen intently during the "David Over Goliath" panel on March 9.

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Scenes from SXSW – Fans line up for a screening of "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" on Friday, March 8.

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Scenes from SXSW – Actor Jim Carrey poses with a fan on March 8 before the SXSW screening of his film "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone."

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Scenes from SXSW – Actors Josh Duhamel, left, and Dan Fogler attend the SXSW screening of "Scenic Route" at the Topfer Theatre on March 8.

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Scenes from SXSW – Attendees arrive at the Austin Convention Center on March 8 at the start of SXSW.

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Story highlights

The South by Southwest Interactive festival wrapped up Tuesday after five days

Festival director: "We've had a much more hardware and gadget focus than ... before"

Other trends: 3-D printing, private spaceflight, mining big data

Festival attendance swelled to an all-time high of 30,621, up some 25% from last year

Hoopla surrounding South by Southwest Interactive, the techie festival that wrapped up here Tuesday, has exploded in recent years.

The event is famously known for helping to boost Twitter in 2007 and Foursquare three years later, giving it a rep as a launching pad for new digital tools. Fresh-faced startups converge on Austin, hoping to get venture capital and buzz. It's one of the reasons attendance at SXSWi this week swelled to an all-time high of 30,621, up some 25% from last year.

It also has created big expectations. One of the most commonly asked questions among attendees here is, "What's the coolest new thing you've seen?"

"That hype has been good for growth. But it's also proved to be a double-edged sword," said Hugh Forrest, director of the festival, in an interview here Tuesday. "People expect something to launch here Friday and be as big as Facebook by Sunday. There are things here that may not hit the mainstream for a couple of years, because they're not fully developed."

SXSW has gotten so big and diffuse that trends can be hard to quantify. But if you go to enough panels and talk to enough people, some themes start to emerge. Here are five takeaways from the past five days:

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As digital tech went social and mobile, recent years at SXSWi have been all about social apps. Two years ago the buzzword was group messaging; last year it was "social discovery" apps such as Highlight, which let you know when people who share your interests are nearby.

But this week, SXSW has been acting a little more like CES, the annual electronics gadget show.

"We've had a much more hardware and gadget focus than we've had before," said Forrest, who thinks the new wave of gadgets may catch on because of their simplicity of use.

Much of the talk at SXSWi was about uses for a gadget that wasn't even officially shown here: Google Glass, the Internet-connected eyewear that Google expects to roll out later this year.

Yes, 3-D printing is a thing

MakerBot wasn't the only company in Austin that makes 3-D printers, which can produce objects from computer models by layering thin sheets of molten plastic.

3D Systems was here with their Cube home 3-D printer, which they marketed by having a man walk around Austin wearing it around his neck. Several SXSW panels also explored the promising future of 3-D printing, expected to be a hot tech trend in coming years.

"I think the 3-D printing stuff is still a little too complicated for most of us," Forrest said. "But the next generation of this technology will be simpler to use. That's always the key here: The SXSW crowd is full of first adopters, but can your mom use it?"

Space, the next entrepreneurialfrontier

With the shuttering of NASA's space shuttle program, many feared the exploration of outer space would wane with it. Instead, innovators have leaped into action, sometimes aiming even higher than government agencies have (at least publicly) dared.

That enthusiasm was on ample display at South by Southwest this week.

At least 15 panels focused on private space travel during the festival. Entrepreneurs proposed everything from a Mars fly-by that would launch in 2018 to building new, privately owned modules on the International Space Station. Someone even proposed a multibillion-dollar reality show following prospective astronauts training for a one-way mission to Mars.

Elon Musk, the CEO of private company SpaceX, hosted one of the most popular keynotes of the week. He detailed his company's recent mission to the International Space Station and showed a never-before-seen video of a reusable rocket designed to one day blast capsules into space and then safely land itself.

He said he wants to see humans on Mars. In his lifetime. Preferably him.

"I would like to die on Mars," he joked. "Just not on impact."

Big, large, enormous data

Stephen Wolfram, the scientist behind the data-driven Wolfram Alpha computational search engine, told a SXSW audience that "In the modern world, everyone should learn data science," or mining large databases for useful patterns of information.

Nate Silver, The New York Times data guru who got a flood of press when he correctly predicted results in all 50 states during last fall's presidential election, hosted a keynote in which he said data-crunching could have useful applications in the public sector, such as studying incarceration data to reform the prison system.

Most government agencies collect reams of data but it gets ignored because of bureaucracy, said Silver.

"But we should understand that it's hard to take this big data and turn it into progress," he said, no doubt splashing cold water on the many startups seeking to scour databases, such as Twitter stats, for lucrative products.

On the flip side, a Carnegie Mellon professor showed how combining online data with facial-recognition software could reveal a surprisingly detailed dossier on a person, including an educated guess about their Social Security number.

More celebrities (human ones, too)!

When compared to its glitzier siblings, the SXSW film and music festivals, South by Southwest Interactive has until recently been low in celebrity wattage. Let's face it, tech geeks don't walk the red carpet much.

But as more famous people embrace technology -- everyone wants to look smart -- SXSW is attracting bigger names with only tangential connections to the tech industry. This year's event featured talks by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, former vice president Al Gore, Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker and hoops star Shaquille O'Neal.

This trend is not an accident.

"There are a lot of people here, and it makes it easier (on us) if you can get someone like a Rachel Maddow who can fill a big room," Forrest said.

However, the biggest celebrity at SXSW 2013 wasn't even part of the official programming: Viral Web star Grumpy Cat, who posed for photos in the Mashable House and drew lines of fans around the block. That just goes to prove: You can launch the cleverest app in the world, but cats still rule the Internet.